Why Filling Out the FAFSA Matters

For students considering any form of postsecondary education, The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, commonly referred to as the FAFSA, can help offset some of the costs associated with higher education. The form is free to complete and helps students check their eligibility for financial aid from the federal government, the state and individual institutions.

The FAFSA form for the 2025-2026 school year opened in November, but the federal deadline to submit is not until June 30, 2026. Other deadlines for state-specific grants or scholarships can vary by state or institution. 

Tamika Braswell, Director of the Office of Financial Aid at the Ohio Department of Higher Education, says the form essentially provides “free money” for students, in addition to providing access to federal grants, work-study programs and student loans, as well as institutional and state aid. 

“It could be the difference between a student going to college or not going to college,” says Jeff Robinson, Director of Communications at the Ohio Department of Higher Education. “Choosing to pursue that or not based on the help they get.”

It works by reviewing income and tax information from the IRS to determine eligibility. Students who are considered “dependent” will need to have a parent or guardian help fill out the form with their tax information.

“The biggest challenge students are facing is really when a parent doesn’t want to assist with the FAFSA completion,” says Carlos Bing, Senior Director of College Access Programs and GEAR UP at the Ohio Department of Higher Education. “So just trying to convince a parent to support that student in the completion of the FAFSA is critical. That can happen from school counselors, other stakeholders [and] advisors who can help explain to parents why completion of the form is so important.”

Last year, the form hit a few snags during the rollout process, causing some students to experience delays in finding out the status of their financial aid.

“We were told that for this upcoming release, all of those kinks have been worked out,” Braswell says. 

To help the process go as smoothly as possible, one of the best things students can do is create their FAFSA ID before beginning. Additionally, students must pare down their list of potential higher education institutions to 20 to meet the FAFSA criteria. 

The 2025-2026 FAFSA form will be the same as the 2024-2025 form, which streamlined the process, so students will have an easier time filling it out. 

The initial proposal for updating the  FAFSA form brought the number of questions from 100 down to 30 or 40, Bing says. This year’s form contains more questions than that, but as Bing points out, “It has skip logic, so you don’t have to go through everything like you did before.”

Because the form automatically pulls tax information from the IRS, the process should take around 30 minutes from start to finish, Bing notes.

“Even if a child or young person isn’t sure about whether they want to go to postsecondary education, it doesn’t hurt to complete the form,” he says. “It’s absolutely free.”

For additional resources, visit itsforyou.org.

This story ran in the Winter-Spring 2025 issue of College 101.